


The Way Things End

by allfireburns



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Aliens, Friendship, Gen, POV Third Person, Time Travel, community: justprompts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-21
Updated: 2009-11-21
Packaged: 2017-10-03 12:29:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allfireburns/pseuds/allfireburns
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor hates telling Donna the way things end. There are reasons.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Way Things End

The Doctor hated to tell Donna the way things would end. Rose and Martha would just accept it when he said that this was Fact, this world would end and those people would die and there was nothing to be done. Donna wasn't like that. Donna always wanted to _change_ things, fix them...

Donna wouldn't ever take no for an answer.

They helped start a revolution on a planet called Fluvana. He didn't tell Donna that he remembered the history of this place, and that after they won, after all was said and done, the ringleader Donna had been so fond of, a charming, charismatic, _brilliant_ girl only a little more than half her age, would be executed for nothing more than questioning the new government as much as she had the old.

They visited a planet without a name, met a few individuals of a species of bright legs and slender, delicate legs and wings, who communicated in colours flashing over their smooth skin. They were fascinated by the Doctor and Donna, and Donna had beamed as a pair of them bounced around her, flashing blue and chartreuse and indigo, which seemed like good colours somehow. The Doctor didn't tell her that in a century, maybe less, they'd be all but entirely wiped out when humans moved to the planet, expanding their reach in the universe.

He didn't tell Donna that saying "forever" couldn't possibly make it true, and how all things had to end, with him.

He met a little girl in London, years and years before he should have. He wouldn't have noticed, even, but for the flash of red hair, and the determination in her stride. It was impressive, for a child her size. He stopped, and turned back to look at her. She couldn't have been older than six, but doing a quick calculation in his head, he realized she would have been about...

It only took a couple strides to catch up with her - no matter how quickly she walked, she did have legs much shorter than his. He fell into step easily beside her. When he asked where she was going, she answered proudly that she was going on holiday, without the slightest hesitation about talking to a stranger. He couldn't help but think, with a smile, that she hadn't changed a bit, but he didn't say it. Or that he was almost certain he had heard this story before.

All he did say aloud was good luck, before watching her continue right on to the bus, marching on as like it was exactly where she belonged. He could tell her that the bus was going to Strathclyde, that she'd be noticed and returned to her parents before she got out of the city, that he knew already exactly how this would end, but he couldn't see the point. Donna never would believe the way the story would end anyway.


End file.
